Tourexpi
This
Journey to Plastic Freedom has been recorded diligently by Six Senses
sustainability teams and today Six Senses has announced it will be sharing this
operational intelligence with the wider hospitality industry through a webinar
and downloadable PDF.
The
Six Senses Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook has 82 tried and tested
solutions to plastic items in the four main areas of a hotel’s operations –
housekeeping, back of house, food and beverage, and spa. Items being eliminated
range from bags and toothpaste tubes to coffee capsules and brooms. The
playbook also shares ten lessons about how being environmentally and socially
responsible can be successfully married to uncompromising hospitality,
efficient operations, profitability, an outstanding guest experience and high
levels of satisfaction and engagement among colleagues.
Neil
Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses, said: “Sustainability is a defining characteristic
of what luxury means to us. We are sharing our playbook with other hotel groups
because the issue needs collective action if we are to make a real impact on
our environment. If that means sharing our trade secrets with the wider
industry, then so be it. What we know from our years of experience is that
sustainability doesn't have to be to the detriment to guest experience. This
playbook only tells half the story. The real legacy will be how our journey
gains momentum and who knows, potentially become part of life for all hotel
operations.”
As
part of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle portfolio, Six Senses has shared the Journey
to Plastic Freedom Playbook with 6,400 IHG hotels across the world. The next
step is for Six Senses is to share it with the wider industry. There will be a
webinar on Wednesday November 6 for anyone working in the hospitality industry
who wants to learn more and from that date, the playbook will be available to
download online.
How
it started: wake up and see the plastic
Following
a successful plastic-free pilot at Six Senses Laamu in 2016, the brand
commissioned a group-wide inventory of every plastic item within its
operations. To its surprise, even though it was eliminating tens of thousands
of items, the numbers kept going up.
Jeff
Smith, Six Senses Vice President of Sustainability, puts this down to the fact
teams were becoming more aware and able to identify the plastic around them. He
said: “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Eliminating plastic items can be
difficult, but it is rewarding. We launched an education and awareness campaign
which comprised six training modules. It opened the company’s eyes to the
plastic it hadn’t ‘seen’ before. No item was too large or small to be nominated
for eliminating. That said, it’s one thing to identify items for eliminating
and research better alternatives but another to get hosts to do without a
material that made their life easier and more efficient. We now have 82
solutions for plastic items which we know are viable alternatives. Every single
time a plastic item is avoided in a Six Senses hotel is yet another good news
story.”
82
solutions across four main operating areas
Thanks
to an intense internal training campaign, the solutions to avoiding plastic
have been met with enthusiasm, creativity, and further innovation across the
world. One of the keys to their adoption is that they have come from the ground
up from empowered colleagues at all 27 hotels. Among those who have contributed
are Dawa Tshering, Restaurant Manager at Six Senses Paro, Bhutan who led the
country’s first-ever natural beeswax wrap production as an alternative to cling
film. Other plastic-free heroes include Wellness Director Anupam Banerjee, who
introduced plastic-free slippers at Six Senses Spa Zighy Bay, which can be
entirely recycled onsite.
Jeff
Smith added: “Our ethos has always been about learning. We wanted to
tackle the entire lifecycle impacts of plastic from extraction of crude oil
through to transportation, chemical leakage, and carbon and climate impacts,
before we even hold that plastic item in our hands. This learning has given us
rich intelligence in the form of tried and tested solutions. Rather than
keeping those solutions to ourselves, we want to share them with the entire
industry. When working together, we hope to go further.”
The
Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook has been written and edited by Six Senses
in-house sustainability leaders in partnership with industry stalwarts
including Rachel McCaffery, CEO of the sustainable tourism consultancy Green
Case, Ally Dragozet, CEO of the marine consultancy Sea Going Green, Phil
Bloomfield, Founder of communications agency Ready to Bloom and Jo Hendrickx,
Founder of Travel Without Plastic.
Rachel
McCaffery explained: “It can be overwhelming to face up to how much material
you use, and the cost of plastic alternatives can add up. But when compared to
the cost that long term plastic is extracting from wildlife and our own health,
is it a change you really can’t afford to make? What was most encouraging was
the engagement from Six Senses guests and hosts. Some solutions were initially
viewed with suspicion but have quickly become guest favorites, such as our
toothpaste tablets.”
An
invitation to join the movement
Six
Senses focuses on eliminating plastic, rather than just recycling. Pollution
from plastic occurs during production, extraction, use and disposal. By the
time it is recycled (if it gets recycled), much of the environmental damage is
already done. Six Senses knew from the outset that its suppliers would be
critical stakeholders, which is why all purchasing teams and suppliers were
brought on board with the vision of the brand to become plastic free and
invited to share the pledge to eliminate plastic. Six Senses learned it was not
alone in its concern and suppliers were open to implementing alternatives and
collaborating to develop workable solutions.
To
register for the Six Senses Plastic Freedom Webinar on Wednesday
November 6, click here
All
attendees will receive a downloadable PDF copy of the playbook.
Image Credit: © Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas
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